1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transmitter-receiver for electronic mail system, and in particular to a transmitter-receiver, which can provide convenience when a user receives services from various mail service providers at different terminals and at different places.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, possibilities have generally increased for individual users to receive electronic mail services from a plurality of mail service providers through personal computer communication, Internet, etc. With rapid propagation of personal computers and portable information terminals, types of terminals to receive electronic mail (hereinafter simply referred as "mail") and places to receive the mail are now much more diversified than before depending on individual users or situations.
However, in case a user receives a plurality of mail services, mail must be received through a different procedure for each service, and this causes much inconvenience to the user. Further, in case the same mail is distributed to the user via a plurality of services, each time the user utilizes any of these services, the user is compelled to read the same mail, and this is also inconvenient to the user.
In case the mail is read at a terminal with relatively low display capability such as a portable information terminal, content of some of the mails may not be correctly displayed or the mail may be deleted from a spool, which serves as a storage unit to retain the mail, although the user has not yet read the mail.
Also, it often happens that there is no function to notify the arrival of the mail to a user which is not connected to a mail system, and it is necessary for the user to connect to the mail system regularly, or that the user cannot receive notice of arrival because the notice can only be given through a single communication method although there is a function to notify arrival of the mail, or that a mail with lower importance may also be notified and this results in higher communication cost.